Designer Forum: Flooring is used to capture a new hotel’s midcentury influence and modern equestrian-chic aesthetic – March 2024

By Linda Snyder

Conceptualized by Air France in the 1960s, the first Le Meridien hotel opened in Paris in 1972, offering the French airline’s flight crews a place to rest. Since then, the brand has grown to more than 100 locations in 35 countries, with a unique aesthetic that reflects the glamorous jet-setting days of the midcentury. For its design of the recently opened Le Meridien Arcadia just outside of Los Angeles, Linda Snyder Associates (LSA) leaned into this heritage while blending inspiration drawn from the local culture, creating a distinct sense of place for the Marriott-owned hotel. A grounding part of the design, the flooring reflects these influences, from the custom carpet’s nod to topography to the terrazzo reminiscent of a peacock, a symbol of Arcadia.

THE INSPIRATION
The velocity of flight inspired the founding of Le Meridien, just as a passion for the magnificent speed of racehorses blossomed into the vision of Santa Anita, the world’s richest racetrack, located in Arcadia. The fluid motion of flight, the curve of the track and the waves of immigration that have shaped the surrounding community unite in the form of Le Meridien Arcadia. The tradition of horse racing has an intercontinental connection to a glamorous period reflective of high society. Le Meridien Arcadia introduces the cache of the racing tradition to a new generation of world travelers.

The aerial view of the track expresses fluid motion, velocity and unity, flanked by the linear agrarian pattern of surrounding orchards. The undulating topography of the foothills’ location at the base of Mount Wilson and the Sierra Madre is woven with hiking and riding trails, in sharp contrast to the grid demarcations of growth patterns surrounding the track.

The Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia is a city layered in multicultural heritage. Waves of successful immigrants, Spanish missionaries, European ranchers and wealthy Asian investors have contributed to an elite society, rich with tradition. A small portion of the original Rancho Santa Anita has been preserved as the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. The arboretum is known for its proliferation of peacocks. Originally imported to the area from India by a wealthy resident as a fashionable status symbol, the colorful birds have become a unique attraction, a representation of the city of Arcadia. The saturated blue breast feathers of the regal birds influenced the color palette for Le Meridien Arcadia, alongside contrasting blacks, whites and greys.

The design brief merged the unique characteristics of the destination with the branding that distinguishes Le Meridien hotels from the competition. The property is located across the street from the Santa Anita Racetrack and at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains. The fashion influence of the equestrian lifestyle influenced textile selections, finishes and artwork styling, while an abstract reference to the aerial view of the track itself suggested grand gestures such as ceiling configuration and column shapes.

Once the guest enters the property, they are enveloped by the sense of place created. The story line developed to establish the mood for the hotel is supported throughout the public spaces, function areas, food and beverage venues, and guestrooms, down to the smallest details. Confirmation of this is the design having won the International Hotel & Property Award for Best Hotel Over 200 Rooms Global.

THE FLOORING
Used for its midcentury historical reference-one of Le Meridien’s brand style points-the flooring in the lobby and lounge is terrazzo. The product allows for the ability to create freeform shapes as terrazzo is a poured product, so it adapts to an organic pattern. The lobby flooring is an abstraction of a peacock tail, with formable zinc strips providing a transition between the terrazzo colors.

Moving into the lounge, the terrazzo transitions to a custom-designed Axminster carpet. Installed over the terrazzo at the main entry seating group as a top-set area rug, it invites guests to gather and relax, while also softening the room’s acoustics. A material requirement of most upscale brands, Axminster’s durability and cleanability are unmatched, and it provides a high-quality finish. The material is also a favorite of the LSA design team, offering plentiful aesthetic opportunities thanks to the wool/nylon blend’s enhanced dyeability. The team worked with Crossley Axminster to fabricate a pattern suggestive of aerial topography as well as the curves of a racetrack, which carries through in the custom broadloom used in most of the hotel’s gathering spaces.

Schluter profiles provide a seamless transition between the carpet and the porcelain tile at the bar. The braided mosaic, handmade by Fireclay Tile in Aromas, California, creates a playful contrast of black and white flooring in the “wet” area surrounding the feature, providing focus and a sense of place for the adjoining bar.

The restaurant floor is a combination of hardwood and cork tile. Both products support the overall project narrative, with reference to the natural materials found in a country or equestrian environment. The wood, an engineered European white oak offering from Los Angeles’ Wood Concepts, adds warmth and richness to the dining area. The cork is excellent for sound absorption, as well as being an upscale, sustainable material with a proven record of durability in heavy-use conditions. The Expanko Heirloom Cork flooring also ties in with the restaurant’s towering wine rack, providing a subtle reference to the focal feature.

The pattern of the carpet in the corridors-another custom Axminster-is derived from an equestrian plaid reference, with neutral colors contrasting very pale greys to blacks and incorporating a tan accent the color of saddles. The team worked very closely with Royal Thai, which manufactured the carpet, to design seamless transitions to the elevator lobby, emphasizing the junctions between transposed corridors.

The guestroom entries feature porcelain tile, which flows directly into the adjacent baths and toilet rooms. With the baths quite open to entryways, the use of porcelain allowed for a seamless flow between these spaces with peace of mind regarding the potential for water issues. It also lends an upscale aesthetic, as no threshold or other transition material was needed to separate the entry from the bath, and the continuous flow of Neoconcrete from Dal-Tile’s American Olean visually enlarges both spaces.

The sleeping area of the guestrooms are finished in wall-to-wall broadloom, preferred for its warm, soft feeling and cozy aesthetic. The custom nylon offering from The Dixie Group’s Masland echoes the topographical references seen in the public areas, tying guests back to the hotel’s unique sense of place. Schluter transition strips were again used to protect the edge of the tile, create a minimal break and finish the edge of the carpet.

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus

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